The Avengers Forever: The GLG Reports

	The GLG Reports Page 9 of 67

The Secrets Broker
By Grant L. Goggans

"Oh yes, of course, we were warned about you!" For the most part, contemporary viewers can view an older, videotape Avengers without too many distractions if they concentrate real hard. "The Secrets Broker" is an exception. It's not just that the direction and camerawork is its usual static, unimaginative, slow third season self, it's that none of the actors, not even Macnee, enunciate well or project towards the microphones, and consequently this hour is an unintelligible mess. Elements of good lines keep drifting by, but if you can catch every line of Steed's first visit to the wine shop, which seems humorous at times, you're doing better than I can. Compounding this is the unnecessarily complex plot. For the first 15 minutes, we are treated to a series of what seem like unrelated set pieces, with no explanation given as to what is happening where. Either A&E cut their print down to incoherence or this just didn't make sense. Even if theirs was uncut, however, it seems like far too many elements are thrown at us at once, particularly when the phony medium Julia, who is the central character in the pre-credit teaser, doesn't appear again until over halfway through the show. On top of that, the use of the medium is unnecessary. Just how many bases of operation do these criminals need? On the plus side, Ronald Allen and Patricia English are believable and watchable as the cheatin' couple, and Avice Landon is totally hate-inspiring as the wretched blackmailer, and her using the leverage she has on Frederick in order to confront Allan is a clever idea presented well. We get to see Cathy preparing for a lecture at her day job and Steed leering at a slide of a topless tribal woman like a young boy with a National Geographic. Jack May uses a sword cane in his fight with Steed, perhaps inspiring our hero to put a blade in his umbrella. Summing up, there are some terrific moments in this one, but the presentation and the plot are so confused and incoherent that only the heartiest Avengers fans can be expected to sit through much of this one.